


keep it charged

by peaktotheocean



Series: more than one [2]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Drinking, Episode Tag, Light Angst, M/M, The Mandalorian (TV) Season 2, The Mandalorian (TV) Season 2 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 21:00:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29266872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peaktotheocean/pseuds/peaktotheocean
Summary: "Skywalker took your kid?LukeSkywalker? That little snot-nosed brat from the Lars homestead?"
Relationships: Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth
Series: more than one [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149302
Comments: 2
Kudos: 112





	keep it charged

**Author's Note:**

> I hadn't anticipated continuing from the first part but it just happened. It can be read as a standalone

It was rare that an evening was calm once Cobb was told that he had a visitor waiting for him in the cantina. The warning was always appreciated but it was never as specific as he would have liked. Maybe they needed to work out some kind of system. A wink for an enemy with a grudge and a slow blink for 'hope your blaster is charged.' 

It wasn't, most of the time. Definitely not today because after Cobb's afternoon, he was lucky to still have a blaster at all. Which meant he also wasn't in the mood to entertain.

"A good visitor or a bad visitor? Should I have already gotten my blaster out? Or just turn around and come back in the morning?"

The only answer he received was hand pointing him towards the corner of the room.

Din was sitting by himself at the last table. Well, sitting was a gracious use of the word. He was slumped, not in an unconscious way but in a way that had Cobb wandering how much he had already sipped underneath that helmet of his. Enough, judging by the amount of cups around him.

There was someone missing too.

"Where's the kid?"

Cobb hadn't meant for those to be the first words of his mouth but he couldn't help it. He'd never seen Din without the kid before. It didn't seem right.

"Din, where's the kid?" He asked again, more urgent this time, swallowing to give himself time not to be frantic. It didn't work but he hoped it was enough that Din could be the only real mess at the table.

"Grogu," Din rasped. It was a response, thank fuck. Though enough of one. 

"What the hell is a Grogu?"

Din's laughter would have been welcome if it wasn't so empty. "The kid. The kid is Grogu."

Cobb used his foot to nudge aside one of the spare chairs and sat so he was as close to Din as he thought was allowed. "You named it?"

"He had a name the whole time. I just--" Din paused and Cobb wished, not for the first time, that he could see through the damn helmet. "I just didn't know it. Couldn't talk to him. Didn't know how to help him."

"Don't say that. You barely let him out of your sight. I know kings that are guarded less than that kid."

It had been more than that. The kid looked at Din with stars in his eyes. And he knew it was mutual. It hadn't been just a job. Cobb couldn't believe he was thinking about this in the past tense. He was tempted to look under the table like it was some joke. Or maybe the kid was at Motto's place. He hadn't seen Din's clunker parked around anywhere. It probably needed to be put back together again.

"Come on, you need to sober up. I'll take you back to Peli."

"Ship's not there."

"You trust someone else to do the work?"

"No ship. Ship's gone. Grogu's gone." The way Din was looking at his cup, the rest of his drink was gone too. It would stay that way if Cobb had a say. He signaled to the bar but was ignored. Typical. 

"What do you mean-- gone?"

Din shifted and it wasn't just the empty cups on the table. Cobb could see it now. It was a little ball of Beskar, the one that the kid-- Grogu, had been obsessed with. Din was holding it with two hands.

"Blew up."

"With you in it?"

"We weren't in it."

"And then what?"

It was like pulling teeth if only Cobb could reach under that helmet. At least Din was talking but the puzzle pieces seemed like they were all out of sorts and from different sets.

"A Jedi took him."

Cobb felt his heart skip a beat. "One of those old wizards?"

If the rumors were anything to believed, Tatoonie had had enough of the Jedi to last a lifetime. And it wasn't just the hearsay either. For all that the rest of the galaxy might have forgotten about the race of space magicians, Tatoonie didn't exactly have the luxury. Well, not all of them.

"He was young. Younger than me."

"A young Jedi?" That didn't sound right but Din didn't sound drunk enough to get details wrong. Not a bounty hunter of his calibre. Not to mention that if this Jedi took his kid, Din probably memorized every detail about him. That didn't answer the question of why Din was here instead of out there looking for the Jedi who took his kid. 

"'Said his name was Skywalker," Din told him, with such a weight that Cob wanted to help him carry but didn't know how. Not yet, and certainly not in the bar. That name though...

"Skywalker?" He asked again, and got flashes of memories from years ago. Decades and villages away from where they were now. He could picture him, almost. A flash of beige went through his mind but that could have been just any part of the dang planet. 

Din had noticed though. He perked up. "You know him?"

"Luke Skywalker?" Cobb checked, pulling the name from his memories. 

Din slowly raised his head up and now at least Cobb knew he was being looked at. Even with the helmet, holding Din's attention was a heady feeling. "Yes. He's a Jedi."

_Of course he was._

Cobb could picture him clearly now or at least the guy's smile.

"Last I knew him he was a snot-nose kid on his uncle's moisture farm. Of course he's a Jedi now. Why wouldn't he be?" Cobb was mostly speaking out loud for himself but Din was hanging onto his every word so he kept going. Anything to make sure his attention didn't go back to his drink. "Farm boy out there moving things with his mind now. Well, he _was_ the best pilot I ever saw. Not that that'll help you unless these powers are somehow good for flying."

"They're good for...moving things." Din rolled the ball of Beskar around his hand. It was the one thing the kid had showed interest in besides Din and now the ball and Din were here and Grogu wasn't. 

Well the only non-food item the kid had liked.

It was a short list.

"He was in an X-Wing," Din said suddenly.

"Still a rebel then?"

"I guess."

"You didn't ask?"

"It happened...fast. There was a lot of other things going on." Din turned his head back down to his drink. Nope, Cobb didn't like that. He snapped his fingers and regretted it. It got Din's attention but he seemed a little more annoyed.

"What happened fast?"

"He _took_ Grogu."

"He just took your kid?"

"Grogu called him there."

Cobb tried his hardest not to slam his head against the table. "Pal, Din. You gotta walk me through it."

Din sighed and Cobb waited. He didn't have anywhere to go. Not now that Din was in front of him again, looking like he did. Anything else could wait. 

"Some kind of Jedi-communicator, I guess. Another Jedi told us about it. That Grogu could use it and call someone to him so they could teach him and he would...be safe with them."

Two Jedis and one missing kid. Not that Cobb had liked those wizards beforehand but this wasn't a good second impression.

"So you're telling me that he called a Jedi and one came."

"Yeah. You know him? The Jedi? Skywalker?" Din clarified unnecessarily. Cobb wondered how hard he'd fight if he tried to insist on getting him to a bed for some much needed sleep. If Din didn't have a ship, that meant he didn't have a place to sleep.

"Yeah, I can take you out to where the family's moisture farm used to be. The Lars place. It’s been abandoned for years."

"The farm?"

"The whole dang homestead. The Lars mister and missus were taken out by the Empire and no one saw Luke again until after he was being thrown up on all the rebellion propaganda."

"Posters?"

"You don't get holos in...in wherever you guys live?"

Din just stared at him, or at least, Cobb assumed he was still looking at him instead of perhaps having fallen asleep standing up in the middle of the afternoon. Granted...Cobb eyed the cups on the table. Anything was possible in this end of the galaxy.

"So now what? You get to visit him for Life Day or on Jedi school breaks?"

"I don't know where he took him."

And he didn't have a ship anymore, Cobb reminded himself. He'd have to figure out how Din got here in the first place.

"Nothing? He didn't give you a map or nothing?"

"Just...took him."

"And you let him?"

Cobb regretted the words right as they were coming out of his mouth and they felt even worse when Din sharply raised his head.

"Grogu _called_ him," Din stressed. "He sat on some Jedi communicator stone and called him."

"Din..."

"I know I did the right thing. He's with his own kind."

Cobb took a deep breath and reminded himself of how Din acted when it had just been about armor. This was a kid he had been charged with taking care of. But it hadn't worked out right this time.

"He's your son," Cobb said, firm and quiet. It wasn't a reminder so much as a fact that he wanted Din to hear out loud. 

"He wasn't a real Foundling."

"I know you don't believe that." Din didn't respond. "I know that you were charged with an order but he is your son."

There was no more argument from Din. Cobb wasn't sure if that meant he agreed or wanted to stop talking about it. Maybe both. One thing at a time.

"I'm also the king of Manda'lor now."

Cobb took a breath and looked away, biting his tongue all the while. 

There was always something else with this guy.

He swallowed his questions and reminded himself that Din had come here. 

Din had taken whatever one way flight he had on whatever space taxi that would come to the outer rim and decided that Tatooine, that Cobb, was who he wanted to see.

Be with.

Trusted or well, trusted enough.

One thing at a time. Cobb went through a mental rolodex of contacts he had within the old rebel alliance. There weren't many and none that could get them directly to Skywalker but maybe the old Darklighter clan would have a lead or two.

He moved his chair closer. Din didn't lean against him, not exactly, but he did press against Cobb. It was better than nothing but maybe, if Cobb didn't jinx himself, he could get Din asleep next to him. He had already been tired before walking into the cantina and the day hadn't gotten better. 

Not that Din's presence wasn't welcome but it was certainly more complicated than Cobb had expected. He needed a game plan. And Din needed sleep, preferably a lot of it and right up against Cobb. Still, one thing at a time.

Cobb let himself shift as close as he thought Din could handle in public. "You need sheriffs on this secret personal planet of yours?"


End file.
